Wireless communication networks are increasingly used for both voice and data communications. To enable data communications, a number of different data services have been designed. Such services are available for example through GPRS (general packet radio service) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System) as well as LTE (Long Term Evolution). Protocols such as HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) and HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access) may be used to enable data services, for example in UMTS systems.
The availability of data services has given rise to wireless communication networks which may simultaneously support human-to-human voice communication sessions as well as human-to-human data communication sessions and machine-to-machine data communication sessions, and possibly even human-to-machine data communication sessions. Different types of communication sessions have different requirements. For example, human-to-human sessions are typically less delay-tolerant than many machine-to-machine sessions, which may in some instances tolerate delays of hours or days. Different types of sessions may also have different connection times, different bandwidth requirements, and the like. Due to these differences, management of communications and traffic in such multi-faceted wireless communication networks differs substantially from management of traditional networks supporting voice communication only.
For example, traditional approaches to wireless communication system management may not take into account different communication requirements to and from different types of wireless devices. This approach, however, does not account for specific needs of different types of wireless devices, nor is it set up to take advantage of different behaviours of different device types to improve system performance. This may result in significant network congestion at times of peak demand, requiring significant capital expenditures to equip the system for large peak traffic demands.
The need for more sophisticated communication system management is described in Technical Specification: “Service requirements for machine-type communications”, Stage 1, 3GPP TS 22.368 V1.1.1, which addresses the problem of congestion by M2M communication. This reference describes aspects of increased network traffic caused by various forms of M2M communications. It, however, does not teach a solution.
Some wireless communications networks, such as UMTS networks, have the ability to inhibit wireless devices from transmitting by using a base station broadcast transmitted control bit. However, this may cause problems, for example if the period of inhibition has been long enough to result in a large backlog of transmissions which may overload the system when the control bit is reset. In a wireless communication system supporting mainly human users, this problem may be less severe, since there the users will typically randomly try to transmit and will be less likely to do so simultaneously. However, for wireless communication systems containing larger numbers of machine-type wireless devices, these machine-type wireless devices may all transmit as soon as the control bit is reset, thereby causing significant congestion problems. In addition, any new solution to this problem should be compatible both with existing wireless communication protocols and wireless devices already deployed in the field, so as to reduce operational impact when providing upgrades to the network and/or individual devices.
Therefore there is a need for a solution that overcomes at least one of the deficiencies in the art.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present technology. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present technology.